Photo by Kyle Clark ©

brook trout fishing

Brook Trout Physical Characteristics

Exhibiting a wide range of colors, brook trout (another char) may be olive to blue-gray on the back to white on the belly. Red spots, usually with bluish halos around them, are present on the sides. Characteristic light wavy marks on the back are a distinguishing feature. Obvious white and then black stripe along the fore edge of each of the lower fins aids in separating brook trout from most other trouts. Caudal fin is squared or lightly forked.

Life Expectancy

The brook trout is a short-lived species, rarely surviving beyond four or five years in the wild.

Habitat and Range

The brook trout is native to small streams, creeks, lakes, and spring ponds. It is native to a wide area of eastern North America but increasingly confined to higher elevations southward in the Appalachian Mountains to northern Georgia, Canada from the Hudson Bay basin east, the Great Lakes-Saint Lawrence system, and the upper Mississippi River drainage as far west as eastern Iowa.

If you are looking for Brook Trout Guides take a look at our fishing guides sections. You will find a perfect guide to land you a brook trout worthy of putting on your wall.

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